A virtual invasion of the Cape

Cape Town is expecting a massive influx of extra visitors in the next three months without many of them actually leaving their homes (as yet). These will be virtual visitors experiencing the delights of the Cape via a world-first Facebook-based travel app.

The unique Facebook app is the brainchild of Cape Town Tourism and its agencies Ogilvy Cape Town and Flow Communications.

According to Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CTT is acutely aware of the importance of social media in travel decisions, and in particular, the role that Facebook plays in determining holiday destinations. This has led to the design and development of one of the most innovative apps yet to position a city globally via Facebook.

“The Facebook app is a creative user experience that utilises the latest technology and Facebook’s immense global reach to raise awareness of one of Africa’s most beautiful and inspiring cities. From October 2, [until the end of December 2012], Facebook users around the world will be able to send their Facebook profile on a holiday to Cape Town and stand a chance to win a trip to the city for real,” she says.

Facebook users can tailor-make experiences that fit their personal interests with a unique itinerary assigned to them. The app demonstrates Cape Town as a city that offers everything from high-energy adventure sports to relaxing, family-friendly experiences. The opportunity to win a real holiday to the Mother City at the end of the campaign is a great incentive to play the game.

“Anyone signing their profile up for a trip gets a boarding pass in their profile’s name from their home town and heads off on a five-day virtual trip to Cape Town. Each day they receive an update with photos of where their profile ate, travelled to, partied or stayed – with gripping, point-of-view photos and videos showing the full experience,” says du Toit-Helmbold.

It’s a simple process to sign up to play the Facebook game. Facebook users need to click on the app to start their journey on the www.mycapetownholiday.com Facebook page.

Velma Corcoran, executive marketing manager at Cape Town Tourism, says, “Earned media is the most powerful form of destination marketing in a noisy marketplace.”

Worldwide, Facebook had 955 million monthly active users in June this year and more than 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook per day, with travel-related photos dominating.

Du Toit-Helmbold points out, “Social Media, and Facebook in particular, has a great influence over consumer choices globally, especially in the travel sector.

"Research in 2012 has shown that 76% of travellers post vacation photos to a social network and 40% post activity/attraction reviews. When you bear in mind that more than 90% of consumers around the world say they trust recommendations from friends, and that only 48% of those who used social media to research travel plans stuck with their original travel plans, it is clear that social media is now of paramount importance for travel authorities like us.”

Du Toit-Hembold believes the campaign “will give thousands of people a chance to do a virtual ‘test drive’ of a trip to Cape Town in a really engaging way, and it should whet appetites around the country and around the world, resulting in more arrivals for Cape Town”.

Cape Town Tourism’s recent iAmbassador campaign – during which influential travel bloggers were hosted in Cape Town and local citizens engaged as the marketers of the city – resulted in more than 36 million Twitter impressions in three weeks (source: Tweetreach). It illustrated the power of social media combined with citizen engagement and set the stage for the organisation’s next digital marketing campaign with Facebook.

Virgin Atlantic is sponsoring the flights for the winners of the trip to Cape Town and will resume their seasonal direct dailies between London and Cape Town from October 18 2012.